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Pirates of Paynetown 2009 - Bloomington, IN
Chapter 4th - Sunday Day - Of breakfast (What do you mean? Of course that's important!) and dogs. But not of a dog's breakfast. Also including some pictorials a pretty funny skit in which Michael Bagley was captured and punished even though he was on the British side. Details of the second battle, which was much more successful for our sea-going heroes as well as a full account of the burying of Billy Bones bones.
(Photo: Mission)
(Photo: Mission)
Sunday morning I was encouraged to have breakfast. It seems that
when Rats had to leave, he bequeathed his food supplies to Michael and Kate.
This included seventy three dozen eggs and several cartons of eggs. Never let
it be said that I would turn down scrambled eggs - especially after a night
spent imbibing rum. So they handed me the cooking utensils and I proceeded to make scrambled
eggs for myself (at left). Although living by
myself means cooking usually involves poking vent holes in plastic wraps, even I can make
eggs. (Right - the bacon is Michael's.) There's nothing quite like eggs
cooked over an open fire - because they turn gray from all the ashes that drift into
them.
After cleaning up the dishes from my breakfast, I checked out the terrain. Sunday morning was a little light on the tourists, so I decided not to get my surgical gear out since I planned to leave after the battle. Instead, I proceeded to wander around and spend some time really checking out the other sites. I noticed there were many "conversational circles." (This is a term I sort of made up for it.) A conversational circle is a bunch of people gathered, often in a ragged, informal circle to discuss ideas, ways of doing things or whatever. This seems to me like a very folksy thing to do and I found it interesting to hang around the edges of them and listen.
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Silas Thatcher)
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(Photo: Mission)
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Probably the most popular place I saw for conversational circles was C. Black's Coffee House. Remember the Kool-Aide commercial - the one where they asked, "Have you ever noticed that there's one house on the block where all the kids play?" That was Chole Black's Coffee House. Having been stationed across the way on Saturday, I noticed there was always a group of people hanging around her place, usually gathered around the fire - despite the heat - to chat and drink coffee. I even dropped over on Saturday night and found a group of them talking until Chole warned them that "the later you keep me up, the later the coffee will be ready in the morning." That was clearly a threat to be taken seriously because things broke up after that.
This was really quite appropriate given what I've read about coffee houses of the time. They were the places many people went to discuss the issues of the day and to debate politics (as seen in the period political documentary series Blackadder.) Coffee as a social gathering point was (as I understand it) a fairly recent development in English society during the Golden Age of Piracy and they indulged in it with all the caution a surgeon shows when allowed to borrow a hot rod for the weekend. So C. Black's Coffee House fit the bill, as can be seen from the rogue's gallery below.
(Photo: Mission)
Parasol girl Krista Graves at the Casa Café Chole as Madam Black prepares the coffee. |
(Photo: Mission)
Pirates Tracy Garland, Gavin Kelly and Jim Jacobs enjoy Coffee House ambiance. |
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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Above are the usual suspects. From left, Great Lakes River Pirates' Captain McCrary, Jim Jacobs (pontificating), Jay Henderson and the widow Black.
(Photo: Kate Bagley)
I got a good chance to talk to Chole on Saturday morning after I had wandered
over to try her period coffee. (Verdict: slightly chunky, but nice and
strong).
It turns out that her position as owner of a coffee house was inspired by a comment made by the Kass of the Reconstructing History. Chole told me that from the time that idea was presented to her, she began doing research on period coffee and coffee houses during the GAoP. She quickly come to understand that there are things that you need to know and explain for your public patter presentations and things that you don't. She found it's best to cull the details the will interest the public most. (Not unlike choosing what to talk with people about in regard to 17th/18th c. surgery.)
She had learned that widows often owned coffee houses, which appealed to her. As she explained it to me, "Poor Chas., dead these many years." She had just acquired a new coffee roaster which had christened at an event last week. She also had an interesting way of rolling down her socks, which seemed like something I should have tried last night when my socks got all itchy.
Something else I noticed at this event was a lot of dogs. Everywhere I went, I seemed to see people walking, carrying and guiding dogs about. I don't specifically recall reading about there being a lot of dogs on pirate ships, but maybe they just forgot to mention them. I do recall a period story about a captain bringing his dog on the rowboat after his ship sank, but that ended pretty badly after a few weeks at sea (for the dog, that is). I'll just leave it at that.
(Photo: Kate Bagley)
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(Photo: Kate Bagley)
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(Photo: Mission)
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Above: Various pirate dogs including Phydeaux at right. ("We're not going to market, right? Right!?")
(Photo: Kate Bagley)
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(Photo: Kate Bagley)
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(Photo: Kate Bagley)
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(Photo: Kate Bagley)
Our own Mickey Souris/Michael Bagley was caught with his hand in
the cookie jar. Actually, I have no idea where his hand was (nor do I
want to know), but, like Miles, he was labeled a thief by the populace,
probably because the populace only had the one sign. After capture, he
was led around the camp, manacled and
chained (above center and right), followed by his wife and personal
photographer, Kate.
Upon being brought before the acting governor (right) he was soundly thrashed. The governor had apparently been working out recently because this somehow led to Michael's untimely demise (below left - "He's dead, Jim." "And in red socks!") Following all this, a group of volunteers magically appeared to remove the body to a nice shady spot. There they worked together to huck him out like yesterday's trash. On his blog, Michael noted that they stepped on his hair, which is probably what the thief (or whatever) deserved anyhow.
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Kate Bagley)
(Photo: Kate Bagley)
On one tour, I came across a really neat chest owned by Michael J.
Stevens. It was a leather-wrapped liquor chest that he had made himself. I
told him it reminded me a great deal of a period medical chest. This led
to a fascinating discussion about other period surgeons that Mr. Stevens knew
from his re-enactment outings. He told me about a medical
chest very close to period belonging to "Bonnie" Prince Charlie.
Michael even offered to scan photos of it and send them to me. Such wonderful people!
(Photo: Kate Bagley)
I can't take all the credit as everyone helped get the Firefly in the water. We soon joined all the other ships on the lake (below left) where it proved to be a splendid day. We had few of the problems of the day before. The swimmers remained blissfully unaware of our presence (and our boat) in their swimming area. Below right you'll find a fine photo showing why I prefer the gunner position on these missions. (That's Tom, Michael and Mark G. doing all the heavy lefting while I take photographs.)
(Photo: Kate Bagley)
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(Photo: Mission)
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Once at sea we had some fun fooling around with the other boats. We had to paddle around for some time while the guys on the land got organized. While waiting, everyone in the Firefly loaded their guns and I loaded my little cannon. There was some confusion over the radio, so I decided it was time to start the battle. Ok, it was an accident; I touched the slow match to the powder and fired the cannon. Your slightly over-eager surgeon was responsible for starting the battle!
(Photo: Kate Bagley)
And all the ships at sea...trying not to hit each other with the oars. |
(Photo: Kate Bagley)
A boy and his cannon. |
(Photo: Mission)
Meanwhile, while we were out paddling and loading and firing our guns and small cannons, re-enactors on shore were actually advancing the battle. (It's fun to fire unloaded blackpowder weapons from a ship towards the shore, but it really doesn't have any practical result other than making a lot of noise.)
If we wanted to really put the idea across that we were a valid threat, we should have rowed to the shore and beached our boat with guns a-blazing and swords a-flashing. This may sound really cool here, but most of the shoreline looked like the photo at right. Had we beached our boats and tried to scramble up the slimy rocks, we probably would have fallen in the water and damaged the our boats more than the British could. I think even the best pirates would have decided to knock off for lunch if the shore dwellers didn't willingly submit after a few rounds.
(Photo: Silas Thatcher)
The British soldiers and militia attempted to defend the
Paynetown encampment against the boats by firing their unloaded
blackpowder weapons. We are pretty much oblivious to them, out there at sea, as we
are focused on trying to keep the boat in sight of the battle on land
and load our weapons. So this really just makes a lot of noise, which
pleases the crowds, which is the reason rubber-band guns would never work at
these events.
When we got back to shore, I was astounded to see so many people actually playing dead. Usually the trouble with blackpowder pirate weapon battles is that everyone wants to fire the gun as many times is as humanly possible before they run out of powder or are told to stop. But we were practically tripping over the wounded as we headed toward the center of camp. Many of the wounded seemed to have hand weapons like those two below. (Never bring an period axe to a period gun fight.) Once the pirates had defeated the town, there was the traditional looting of the dead (below right).
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
(Photo: Mission)
Tartan Jack was among the wounded, the difference being that he
really was wounded and he didn't fall down. He just kept going with
his twelve apostles swinging around him (at left). Yet further proof that once you
have a black powder gun in your hand, you must be invincible - otherwise you
have to stop firing the gun. Apparently TJ cut his palm on the gun or
something, gamely wiped the blood on his slops and then wrapped his hands
in cloth - at right. (He figured blood would make for more realistic slops.)
There were some skits involving the British not wanting to surrender, the surrender of the acting governor, Michael stealing some rum and other things like that. I noticed the cannons were still firing occasionally, so I decided to toddle over and see what that was all about. The cannons were pointed at the now empty sea (all the pirate boats were in). I heard one cannoneer say, "Isn't the battle over?" Another replied, "Well, they haven't told us to stop yet." So they kept firing and making lots of noise because, as noted, that's what period battle re-enactments are all about.
(Photo: Mission)A reluctant surrender skit. |
(Photo: Mission)Ah, Michael... |
 (Photo: Mission) Happily firing the cannon at nothing |
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Photo: Mission)
(Photo: Mission)
Sometime before the battle (and possibly during the battle for all I
know), Kate told me the she was going to embroider a pocket. During this period, a pocket was a separate thing that was worn inside of your skirt that served as... well, a pocket. Kate had
purchased a period design somewhere on-line for a pretty reasonable price.
It featured a flower crawling up what looked to be a rather large
pocket.
Kate told me this was her first serious, large-scale embroidering project which I found impressive - it's always cool to develop new skills. Of course, this is something for which re-enacting provides one with lots of opportunities.
(Photo: Mission)
(Photo: Scary Toy Archives)
One of the final sketches I saw was notable in that it involved a gibbeted
skeleton named Billy Bones (at right). Michael and Kate Bagley-Souris had
intended to bring my own gibbeted skeleton Becky
(whom they have been keeping at their place for me), but she proved too heavy for Kate to
lift on her own.
If you check out the Becky link, you will note that Paynetown Billy is on a wooden hanging-structure, while Becky is in an iron cage - yet both are called gibbets. This is because I once did a Google image search on gibbets and discovered that not only are both of these structures referred to as gibbets, but some people also call a guillotine the "Halifax gibbet". Looking to Fisher Price for guidance, I noted the Little People Medieval Torture Devices™ (right) cops out and incorporates both ideas into one cheerful plastic play set. So bringing Becky would have just confused everyone and it's just as well that Kate couldn't lift her.
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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Since the battle was over and Billy was planted, I decided it was time to leave. You know, it's funny, but it always seems that the longer you are at an event, the better it gets. Maybe it's just because it takes me awhile to warm up and get used to people, or maybe it's something everyone experiences. I almost hated to go Sunday afternoon, but I knew I had five or six hours of driving ahead of me and it would be best to go soon.
Before I went, I wanted to make sure to get a picture of Sarah and Michelle (below left, talking to Jennie Gist). Sarah and Michelle are two women I first noticed at the Sailor's Divvy on Saturday night. I believe they were the only non-re-enactors to purchase something. Even then I could tell that these were two women who had been infected with the re-enacting bug. It reminded my of my first Pirates in Paradise in 2007 where I marveled at how cool it all was. Little did I realize that this was the doorway to spending untold amounts of money on stuff that would be otherwise useless outside of this context. When I was talking with Sarah and Michelle, they started asking my about Indiana re-enactments. (Of course I know nothing about this - I guess it was the silly hat and knee britches that made me look knowledgeable.) I expect I'll see them at Paynetown next year, only in full kit.
I intercepted Michael, who was headed for Tartan Jack's fly with the mini Thatchermobile (below right). He was going to collect TJ's stuff, but I conned him into toting mine first. (Actually, he generously offered to do this.) Admire the period correct cardboard box with all the bright orange stickers on it being hauled in the wagon below right. (The stickers were to warn UPS that the stuff inside - my medical equipment - was fragile when I shipped it to Key West. In fact, this is really to protect them. You never know what might jab through the side of the box if it were dropped.)
Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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Once the hot rod was loaded, I went around and said my goodbyes. I saved the Thatchers for last. Lady Constance had Zach, Ryan and Grace down at the beach. (This may be another reason this is such a family-friendly event; the beach is on the border of the camping area.)
Zach was creating a lagoon on the beach with some new-found friend (below left) while Ryan had his own project going - I think he was re-enacting the opening of the Panama Canal (below middle). Grace was out in the water somewhere. "I better call her so she can say goodbye," Constance said. "You're going to get a wet hug." And I did as Grace jumped on me like she had on Friday evening. ( The lake water helps weather the clothing.) She proudly presented me with something that she told me was a shark's tooth. (Ah, yes, those pesky lake sharks. Below right.) Then I took off.
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Mission)
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